Maintaining Brand Image While Transitioning to Sustainable Packaging

The rise in demand for sustainable and eco-friendly packaging has inspired a movement in the market. This has been moving brands towards using product packaging that leaves minimal to no impacts on the environment. Changing product packaging can be difficult due to its potential to lose regular customers. Dedicated buyers can often lose the track of their favourite products because of the substantial change in the outlook. Being habit-bound, customers prefer to instantly spot their desired products as they walk into the store. Being faced with a challenge as such, how can retailers transit from conventional to sustainable packaging without losing their brand image and losing customers?

Some brands are altering their packaging size, shape, or material to meet this requirement, however, can a balance be kept to retain customers? Here are a few tips on changing your packaging smartly:

Preventing Backfires:

Packaging mistakes are not limited to small businesses. Sometimes even big brands make their mistakes, for instance, in 2009 PepsiCo’s Tropicana rolled out a packaging that was completely different from the previous which caused a loss of 20% in sales. Another product by PepsiCo that had to be pulled out is the US product Sun Chip. Although the packaging was biodegradable, it backfired because too many customers complained that the packaging made too much noise.

While making a change, keep in mind that massive change doesn’t always mean a good thing. If you are to retain your brand’s image and consistency, it is best to consider changes one at a time i.e. either change in design or structure of your packaging.

Reviewing Contents of Packaging:

Decisions regarding packaging have always been influenced by the products that are supposed to be contained by the packaging. Think about food packaging, it needs to be clean and secured while also keeping the visual contents pleasing. It is especially difficult to keep up with this trend in the food industry since most of the food packaging items, such as films and coatings, are not recyclable.

The beauty industry, comparatively, has been doing quite well in its sustainability march. Most of the brands are eliminating the use of harmful chemicals such as paraben and sulphates to better their customer experience. Some brands have even come up with creative ideas of packaging that use bamboos, seaweed, and even chalk to hold their products.

Product Protection:

While companies try to protect their products during transit, they can make excessive and unnecessary additions. Transit-friendly packaging is important while shipping overseas, however, if the products are in shelf-ready cartons and are being shipped locally, adding extra cartons can be unnecessary. Although necessary for protection, the amount of packaging material used in creating packaging can be reduced by 20% as is demanded by a large number of customers.

Commitment to Eco:

Customers are not solely interested in eco-friendly packaging; they also look forward to the brand’s commitment to sustainability. Unalive in its 2017 research states that more than one in five customers choose brands that have made their sustainability goals, attempts, and struggles clear on their packaging.

Packaging still has a long way to go to find an unobjectionable place in environmental wellbeing. However, the use of recyclable and degradable packaging, either through composting or biological factors, has become more common than ever and the future looks more promising than ever.